Judge sentences Cedar Rapids woman to probation for abandoning kids on street

CEDAR RAPIDS — A judge sentenced a Cedar Rapids woman to probation this week for abandoning her husband’s children, an 8-year-old girl and 6 -year-old boy, on Tower Terrace Road, near Interstate-380, after telling them “nobody loved them in June 2024.

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Heather Ann Perez Miranda, 38, left them on the side of road, after punching their father earlier in the day, and then two months later falsely reporting he had shot her in the stomach while at Morgan Creek Park on Aug. 28, 2024, according to a criminal complaint.

Perez Miranda previously pleaded to neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, a Class C felony; child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor; domestic abuse assault, a simple misdemeanor; and false reports, a serious misdemeanor.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Mark Fisher ran the convictions concurrently for 10 years, suspended it and gave her four years of supervised probation. He also dismissed one count each of neglect or abandonment of a dependent person and child endangerment — abandonment, as part of the plea agreement.

According to a complaint, Hiawatha police responded near the 4000 block of Tower Terrace Road and found the children on the corner of the street June 30, 2024. The 8-year-old girl had a congenital deformity of her mouth and jaw area and was dependent upon a g-tube implanted in her body. A medical professional told police she wasn’t able to care for herself, the complaint stated.

When their stepmother made the children get out of the truck, she also had her four biological children with her, according to the complaint.

Both children told police their father wasn’t with Perez Miranda when this happened. The complaint states she and their father had a fight earlier in the day.

When police later interviewed her husband, he said Perez Miranda punched him in the face and he rode his bicycle to get a hotel room, according to the complaint. Later, he found out his children were found at a trailer park in Hiawatha and there was no reason they should be there.

Police had surveillance video that showed Perez Miranda, in the truck with the camper attached, exiting I-380 and going to the 4000 block of Tower Terrace Road, near where the children were found. The video then showed the truck get back on I-380.

On Aug. 28, 2024, a Linn County Sheriff’s Office investigation determined Perez Miranda falsely reported her “estranged” husband shot her in the stomach in a camper at Morgan Creek Park because her husband was with his and her children that night at a different location, according to video evidence.

Investigators also based their findings on the trajectory of bullet that struck her stomach and exited out of the camper from a direction inconsistent with how she reported the shooting happened.

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